Behnaz Fattahi PODCASTING, VIDEO AND SCREENCASTING
Podcast A podcast is a type of digital media consisting of an episodic series of audio radio, video, PDF, or ePub files subscribed to and downloaded through web syndication or streamed online to a computer or mobile device The term "podcasting" was first mentioned by Ben Hammersley in The Guardian newspaper in a February 2004 article, along with other proposed names for the new medium. It is a portmanteau of the words "pod" —from iPod— and "broadcast". Despite the etymology, the content can be accessed using any computer that can play media files and not just portable music players. Use of the term "podcast" predates the addition of native support for podcasting to the iPod, or to Apple's iTunes software. Former MTV VJ Adam Curry in collaboration with Dave Winer, a developer of RSS feeds, is credited with coming up with the idea to automate the delivery and syncing of textual content to portable audio players. Iit's not hard to see why podcasts are making inroads in schools. One way to get into the flow of education related podcasting is to visit the Education Podcast Network (tinyurl .coml66grdx), which lists nearly 1,000 different education-related shows. Not only is there a growing directory of educators who are doing personal podcasts, there are links to suggested classroom uses broken down both by grade level and subject. Video podcasts A video podcast (sometimes shortened to vodcast) includes video clips. Web television series are often distributed as video podcasts.Since the spread of the internet and the use of Internet broadband connection TCP, which helps to identify different applications, a faster connection to the internet has been created and a wide amount of communication has been created. Video podcasts have become extremely popular online and are short clips of video, usually part of a longer recording. Video clips are being used on pre-established websites and more and more websites are being created solely for the purpose of video clips and podcasts. Video podcasts are being streamed on intranets and extranets, private and public networks, and taking communication through the internet to whole new levels. Enhanced podcasts An enhanced podcast can display images simultaneously with audio. These can contain chapter markers, hyperlinks, and artwork; all of which is synced to a specific program or device. When an enhanced podcast is played within its specific program or device, all the appropriate information should be displayed at the same time and in the same window, making it easier to display materials. Uses Communities use collaborative podcasts to support multiple contributors podcasting through generally simplified processes, and without having to host their own individual feeds. A community podcast can also allow members of the community (related to the podcast topic) to contribute to the podcast in many different ways. This method was first used for a series of podcasts hosted by the Regional Educational Technology Center at Fordham University in 2005. Mostly, it's people from all different walks of life with all sorts of interests. Politicians are definitely in the podcasting groove, as every candidate for the presidency in 2008 started pumping them out well before the primaries. Rightly so, they see the genre as way of getting out their respective messages. Businesses, churches, governments, and schools are getting into the act as well. Video Publishing While elementary school kids seem to love podcasting, older kids have started gravitating to video in a big way. And the biggest reason for that without question is YouTube.com. Bought by Google back in 2006 for over a billion dollars, YouTube is already having an enormous disruptive effect on our society, and it's also becoming a place where more and more of students go to publish the artifacts of their lives. Over 20 hours of videos are being uploaded to YouTube every minute, which translates to almost four years' worth of video uploaded each day. It's also a site that most schools have chosen to block. While, as with the other the vast majority of YouTube content is appropriate, the "anyone can publish anything" aspect can be unsettling. (Still, wouldn't it be better to teach students how to deal with less-than-salient content that they see when they get home?) The same goes for Google Video and a number of the other popular uploading sites. So, a number of alternatives for educators are already springing up, the most notable of which is TeacherTube.com. TeacherTube has thousands of studentand- teacher-produced videos and wants yours as well. The great part about these online services is that they're free, number one, and they are unlimited in terms of their use. And, in the case of YouTube,you can even record video right from your computer onto their server. But as with podcasting, there is a certain amount of writing and preparation that goes into great movie making. It's a digital storytelling in its most complex form, and it requires a significant amount of thinking and work to do it well. And, of course, the process is a bit more complex, making it difficult to cover in this small amount of space. SCREENCASTING One step up from podcasting is screencasting, which is a relatively new medium that I think has a lot of promise in the classroom. A screencast is a digital recording of computer screen output, also known as a video screen capture, often containing audio narration. The term screencast compares with the related term screenshot; whereas screenshot is a picture of a computer screen, a screencast is essentially a movie of the changes over time that a user sees on a computer screen, enhanced with audio narration. It's so easy to do. If you can podcast, you can screencast. But, obviously, screencasting takes a bit more preparation. You're combining audio with video, which means you need to think more carefully about what you want to do and how best to do it. You'll need to prepare what it is you want to show on the computer and you'll probably want to create at least an outline of a script. You might even want to create a storyboard that sketches out the visual and the audio together. No matter how you plan, it's not a bad idea to run through it a couple of times before actually starting to create the screencast. An alternative solution for capturing a screencast is the use of a hardware RGB or DVI frame grabber card. This approach places the burden of the recording and compression process on a machine separate from the one generating the visual material being captured. Uses Screencasts can help demonstrate and teach the use of software features. Creating a screencast helps software developers show off their work. Educators may also use screencasts as another means of integrating technology into the curriculum. Students can record video and audio as they demonstrate the proper procedure to solve a problem on an interactive whiteboard. LIVE STREAMING-WEB The most recent entry into the multimedia publishing discussion is livestreaming video to the Web. In a nutshell, we're talking the ability of teachers and students to create their own TV shows online injust a few clicks. And, if you have a personal learning network at your disposal, you also have a potential audience at your fingertips. While this is still pretty unexplored territory in education circles, and While the tools are evolving rapidly, a surprisingly large number of teachers are already experimenting with the idea of creating live "television" with their students in their classrooms and schools. And because of how incredibly easy it is to do this, that number is increasing greatly every day. The examples run the gamut: school plays and musicals being broadcast to relatives far and wide, student science presentations for parents to watch, live student-run daily news broadcasts, live teacher professional development that anyone can tune into, conference workshops and presentations free to those who couldn't make the trip, and all sorts of other possibilities. Basically, we're close to the point where every school, every classroom, every person, in fact, can own a television station. the requirements are a fast (or pretty fast) and stable Internet connection, a computer with a microphone and either an external Webcam or built-in video camera, a free account at an online video streaming site, and an idea. Our ability to create and share multimedia in more and more transparent ways is only going to continue to expand. The potentials are huge, and the pitfalls challenging. But publishing to an audience can be a great motivator for students. Podcasting, videocasting, screen casting, and now live-streaming TV are all great ways to get student content online. References: 1. Wikipedia 2. "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms" by Will Richardson Section heading Write the first section of your page here. Section heading Write the second section of your page here.